^ I think this is a GREAT idea for a panel(s). If it doesn't exist already, would Guy or someone consider conducting a crash course for newbies interested in getting started? I'd totally go to such a panel

I usually get asked to do a 2-hour clinic at the con in the Creation Station,and I'd be glad to work at any level of interest or mechanics.Just speak up about what you want to see.

I also invite other AMV makers to come up and talk about how they made their stuff too, so there's lots of info to share!

Also, would anyone be intersted in an offsite clinic in which we rent a room somewhere (CHEEP! and gather there and just pound on computers?If we can book a room free or for cheap at a library or an also-ran hotel (Example - the La Quinta on NW Yeon, maybe) and it 15 people show up and pitch in $50 for a half-day session, would that be plausible?

With con-crunch coming on right now, I will be flattened schedule-wise from here on in.Do we want to try this in October / November as a warm-up for the 2013 contest?

Also, I will very likely be doing an AMV clinic sometime during the con, and I have Premiere Elements 8.All I need is to know what room and time I / the clinic will be assigned.

We can definitely fire up Premiere and go over the basics of importing video and audio,fade-ins fade outs, motion, and (uncompressed .avi) output.

Premiere will compress output, but it doesn't do the greatest job.It's still much better than the pixelated crudfests you often get fromWindows Movie Maker (which is the main reason why .wmv files areNOT accepted in this AMV contest,) but there are better and simpler tools out there.

Best compressor one I use now is AMV Simple** which you can find on amvnews.ruand ZarxGui is also pretty good.

** [CTAPT!] Phear not teh menacing Cyrillic, there IS an English option in the install..

I will check into the La Quinta motel at the apex of Yeon St and NW St Helens Rd in NW Portland.

I planned an event there about 10 years ago and they have conference rooms, but since they don't have a restaurant, they don't get all fussed up about people bringing in their own (cheap) food or snacks rather than forcing you to cater through the hotel.

There is a convenience store across the parking lot which has a hot bar (unidentifiable fried things under heat lamps) but also a Subway(R) built in, so that fresher foods and salads are easily available too.

I will check into a Sunday afternoon in early October, and see what they want.It will probably take me a week for me to make time to get out there, so hang on.

gonna use xmedia recode to change the format, takes a half hour tho, causes all 4 cores to spin at 100% for 30 mins >.< I need to build a super computer if I want to keep doing this.

Umm... it sounds like you aren't using the standard avisynth+virtualdub combo... Certainly I don't presume to know your reasons but I was using the AMVApp and guide (http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech31/) for years on a then mid-line laptop (not that I recommend this, I ended up overheating the video chip, which would've been a $400 repair job if I hadn't opted to buy a PC instead). I read that phrase and all sorts of red flags went up in my head; frying your video card seems to be a fairly common problem among video editors.

The AMVApp is 100% free. The guide would do a better job of explaining this than I would but the process for re-encoding (and yes, you are right to be re-encoding, to my knowledge no version of Premiere plays well with mkv's) is really as simple as using avisynth to open any file up in vdub and then exporting it as a lossless avi. My computer can re-encode whole episodes in about 3mins. However, probably because I am used to trying to maximize the capabilities of a system that wasn't actually capable of what I was trying to do with it, I never do that. I always make clips, which are much much smaller files and encode at a few seconds tops (generally about as long as playback); the guide can also show you how to do that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: if you have a quad-core computer you are probably running a system capable of making solid AMVs so long as you have it work smart not hard. Making it work hard may actually be extremely detrimental to the longevity of your computer; until you have a really strong grasp of what you're doing I'd really just recommend parroting the guide.

Thanks for the help, I got xmedia recode because I was using it to change 10 bit mkvs to 8 bit ones so I could play them on my tablet. It has the ability to turn stuff into avi. However, as I just noticed the output is terrible, it is all choppy and meh I'm going to give it one more shot to try to make an mp4 then I think i need to try another program.

OK - La Quinta on Yeon can rent out a small meeting room (10 ppl) on an October Sunday afternoon, from noon to 6pm for $80.

How about I set up a mailbox (as in reality-world, postal system) and if I get $40 in checks I'll book the room and risk the other $40.If 4 people show up, we split things for $20 ea.If 8 then it drops to $10.

OK, if people are still up for this, I'll start a poll for what weekend we want.I will want at least 8 votes before we call this a "go," and then I'll post a (US mail) mailbox so people can send checks to chip in to reserve the room.

Alternatively, if this doesn't come together this way, then eithera) someone else takes a lead to try to arrange an event, orb) the idea dies - neat to talk about but not enough people really want to DO it.